Is the iPhone changing the balance of power in the wireless industry? The battle for power between the operators and the handset manufacturers could be tilting in favour of the handset makers.
AT&T, the
And the sole reason for this success was AT&T's position as the sole
Why did AT&T's wireless revenues grow 38 per cent in the quarter? Largely because of data usage - web-browsing, email, text.
And the greatest driver of all of that was the Apple Apps Store which - tomorrow April 24th - is on track to record its one billionth download.
When the telcos sweated their wotsits off trying to produce apps like location-based services, their efforts were largely useless.
Now Apple, by throwing apps development open to the developers of the world, has transformed apps into a powerful driver of wireless phone revenues.
Also that key performance metric which many telcos had given up on in the developed world - gaining new subscribers - is soaring at AT&T.
In Q109 AT&T acquired 1.2 million new subscribers of whom 875,000 signed up to contracts which is a 24 per cent increase on Q108..
Activations of new iPhones totalled 1.6 million, 40 per cent of which were for new customers.
This looks like a major change in the wireless firmament. The iPhone's air interface is so good it makes browsing hassle-free; its Apps Store provides a host of new reasons to browse; Americans are signing up to this formula in droves and, where America leads, the rest of the world will surely follow.
In short...yes Apple have changed the game. have to agree with you on this one.
Their major strategic observation was that there is no single killer app likely in the forseeable future. At the last few years of 3GSM the carriers have obsessed on this or that killer app as the obsessed with their spreadsheet led bandwidth selling models, seeking the one true solution to their investment (into expensive wireless frequencies) woes.
Apple just realised the market needed a mobile platform to do all the things they already do on the internet, and to enable that you needed to have means to enable those capabilities to be delivered to consumers. Enter the app store. Simple awesome strategic marketing and typical Apple aplomb in execution. Not least of which was their confidence to cut the kinds of deals they did with the carrier of choice.
Geoff You're so right. i think those deals get done because Jobs can get in to see anyone on the planet. There's a telling story in the book 'The Second Coming Of Steve Jobs' when Jobs and an Apple colleague were in Detroit and, on the spur of the moment, Jobs took him into the HQ of General Motors and asked the receptionist if he could speak to the CEO. Within a few minutes they were ushered uin to meet him. That's pulling power!